Bretagne. September 20, 2016 — Isabelle & Pierre

A two-day trip for Pierre to Vannes and Lorient to visit his little sister, Laure. Isabelle stayed in Paris for some family time and catch-up with old friends.

Laure lives in Locmiquelic, a village on the bay of Lorient and works partly in Vannes, a small town on the beautiful Gulf of Morbihan on the south shore of Brittany. Laure is immersed in the world of Sailing. As a mother, journalist and editorial director, she shares her time between her 19-year-old twins, Jules & Gaspard, and her clients including IDEC Sport - the sponsor of a challenger of the Jules Verne Trophy - and The Bridge 2017 - an upcoming event involving the Queen Mary 2 and the Maxi Multi-Hulls sail racing boats.

Laure picked me up at the TGV station in Vannes for a lunch at the Piano Barge and a visit of her office at The Bridge located next to Multipast, the world leading builder of composite racing boats.

The Bridge 2017 is a unique event taking place in June 2017 celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the landing of the American soldiers, "Les Sammies", in Saint-Nazaire at the end of the First World War. This symbolic bridge between France and the Unites-States will rest on a series of once-in-a-life-time festivities: An historic celebration of the Franco-American alliance and friendship honoring Les Sammies, musical performances marking the 100-year anniversary of the arrival of Jazz in Europe, a Basketball World Cup 3x3 organized by the FIBA under the sponsorship of Tony Parker and a very innovative Yachting Challenge between the Queen Mary 2 and the latest generation of Multi-Hulls sailing boats.

The Race: A never-seen-before Transatlantic Regatta between the RMS Queen Mary 2 and several Maxi Multi-Hulls racing boats leaving Saint-Nazaire on June 25th with a majestic arrival scheduled in New York City on July 1st. The sailing boats are the best-of-the-best and the fastest in yacht racing including Maxi Spindrift 2, Sobedo Ultime, Macif, Ultim Actual and few more. These ultimate racing machines are capable of reaching speeds over 50 miles per hour. The cruising speed of the Queen Mary 2 is 32 miles per hour.

If the wind is strong the sailing boats may win.......... Even though it will take exceptional weather conditions for the trimarans to beat the QM2 on a East-West crossing. Suspense!!!

The next day we had lunch in the naval base of Lorient where the bunkers built by the Nazi to protect their submarines, the U-boats, during the Second World War are still dominating the harbor. Lorient is also a sailing mecca and the base for the teams and boats of the Vendée Globe race. The harbor infrastructures celebrates major sailor figures such as Eric Tabarly, the "Father" of all modern French sailors, who disappeared in the Irish Sea in 1998. Several of Eric Tabarly's boats, The Pen Duick Yachts, are docked there and can be visited.

Eric Tabarly's image recomposed with over 10,000 anonymous portraits and displayed on the wall of Bunker K2

The Vendée Globe is a round-the-world, single handed race, sailed non-stop and without assistance. It takes place every 4 years. The next race is scheduled to start on Sunday November 6, 2016. We were able to admire some of the boats and witness the teams, active in their preparations for the big date coming up soon. The boats are a single design class, The IMOCA 60.

This year, the race will see the introduction of a new technology to monohull design: The Daggerboard Foils!

The pair of foils substantially increases the speed of the boat as shown below but also complicates the life of the skipper with huge noises and increased physical efforts for a period of over 2 months in the treacherous seas around the South Pole. Alone......

Sharing similar DNA with the Paris-Dakar race, the Vendée Globe is incontestably the hardest race in the world. It runs from November to February, placing the competitors in the Southern Ocean during the austral summer. Starting from Les Sables d'Olonne, down the Atlantic Ocean to the Cap of Good Hope, then clockwise around Antartica, keeping Cape Horn to port, the exhausted sailers are racing back to Les Sables d'Olonne having braved the toughest seas in the globe for over two months. You had to be French to even think about such a race!!!!

The last race in 2012 was won by Francois Gabart in 78 Days 2 Hours 16' and 40" on Macif, a new record and only 3 hours and 17' over the second, Armand Le Cléac'h . Talking about a tight race!